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Alsharq Tribune- Sarah Benkraouda
Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian has ordered the start of nuclear talks with the United States, the news agency Fars reported on Monday, after US President Donald Trump said he was hopeful of a deal to avert military action.
"President Pezeshkian has ordered the opening of talks with the United States," Fars reported, citing an unnamed government source.
"Iran and the United States will hold talks on the nuclear file," Fars said, without specifying a date. The report was also carried by the government newspaper Iran and the reformist daily Shargh.
Tensions are running high amid a military buildup by the US Navy near Iran, following a violent crackdown against anti-government demonstrations last month, the deadliest domestic unrest in Iran since its 1979 revolution.
Trump, who stopped short of carrying out threats to intervene during the crackdown, has since demanded Iran make nuclear concessions and sent a flotilla to its coast.
He said last week Iran was "seriously talking", while Tehran's top security official Ali Larijani said on X that arrangements for negotiations were underway.
Iranian sources told Reuters last week that Trump had demanded three preconditions for resumption of talks: Zero enrichment of uranium in Iran, limits on Tehran's ballistic missile program and ending its support for regional proxies.
Iran has long rejected all three demands as unacceptable infringements of its sovereignty, but two Iranian officials told Reuters its clerical rulers see the ballistic missile program, rather than uranium enrichment, as the bigger obstacle.
Foreign Ministry spokesperson Esmaeil Baghaei said Tehran was considering "the various dimensions and aspects of the talks", adding that "time is of the essence for Iran as it wants lifting of unjust sanctions sooner."
A senior Iranian official and a Western diplomat told Reuters that US Special Envoy Steve Witkoff and Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi could meet in Türkiye in the coming day.
A Turkish ruling party official told Reuters that Tehran and Washington had agreed that this week's talks would be focused on diplomacy, a potential reprieve for possible US strikes.
The Iranian official said "diplomacy is ongoing. For talks to resume, Iran says there should not be preconditions and that it is ready to show flexibility on uranium enrichment, including handing over 400 kg of highly enriched uranium (HEU), accepting zero enrichment under a consortium arrangement as a solution".
However, he added, for the start of talks, Tehran wants US military assets moved away from Iran.
"Now the ball is in Trump's court," he said. Tehran's regional sway has been weakened by Israel's attacks on its proxies - from Hamas in Gaza to Hezbollah in Lebanon, the Houthis in Yemen and militias in Iraq - as well as by the ousting of Iran's close ally, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.
Last year the United States struck Iranian nuclear targets, joining in at the close of a 12-day Israeli bombing campaign.
TEHRAN DEMANDS LIFTING OF SANCTIONS After five rounds of talks that have stalled since May 2023, several hard-to-bridge issues remained between Tehran and Washington, including Iran's insistence on maintaining uranium enrichment on its soil and refusal to ship abroad its entire existing stockpile of highly enriched uranium.
Since the US strikes on Iran's three nuclear sites in June, Tehran says its uranium enrichment work has stopped.
The UN nuclear watchdog has called on Iran repeatedly to say what happened to the HEU stock since the June attacks.
Western countries fear Iran's uranium enrichment could yield material for a warhead. Iran says its nuclear program is only for electricity generation and other civilian uses.
The Iranian sources said Tehran could ship its highly enriched uranium abroad and pause enrichment in a deal that should also include lifting economic sanctions.
